Showing articles about dota

There was a time when “Free to Play” meant Farmville and Candy Crush. Annoying timed based game limitations and constant annoying social media requests from “friends” defined the genre in its infancy. But the truth of it is, free to play gaming has blossomed on the PC for hardcore gamers. It’s broken free of the shackl...

DOTA 2 has gotten another co-op mode and this one is a bit more official and closer to our definition of co-op. While the game has always had a comp-stomp style of cooperative play allowing you to practice against bots with friends, the new mode is a survival style map where five players work together to defend the Skeleton King from enemy onslaught.

Continuing our Free-to-Play week, Locke and Tally take a look at DOTA 2. While there’s a lot to say about the game, we’ll be focusing on the co-op experience as well as how Valve monetizes the game.
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Free to Play games have traditionally had a negative reputation attached to them. For many the first thoughts that come to mind when hearing those three words are games like Farmville and Candycrush. It's the social stigma, the casual game, the titles are "real" gamer would never touch. But the reality of it is, there are some really quality AAA titles out there available for free, and some of those titles feature some strong cooperative play.

SteelSeries, makers of gaming peripherals, came out swinging at E3 2012 this year with five product announcements all centered around partnerships with groups and games within the industry. We got some eyes on time with all of them at the show and there's definitely a commitment to quality and detail here. Let's look at what's available.

For the past several weeks, I’ve been dabbling in Dota 2. It’s one of those RTS/action games where you take control of a hero unit and defend your base from the opposing team. Though the focus of these games is usually competitive, Dota 2 supports a pretty good co-op mode (probably the best I’ve seen for the genre). Any number of players can form up on a team, fill up the remaining slots with bots, and go up against an all-bot team in good, old-fashioned comp-stomp. The bots are available in five different difficulty levels, so it’s easy to tweak the experience based on whether the players are new to the game or experienced. Of late, I’ve found the co-op mode a great way to blow off some steam.